Minton's Playhouse

Jazz music has unquestionably been America's most significant cultural contribution to the world. Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, New York, is considered to be one of the most important shrines in the history of jazz, and this can be argued with equal force. In a sense, Minton's was the birthplace of Bebop; in a more literal sense, it was the place where the foundations of modern jazz were laid. It was founded in 1938 by the saxophonist Henry Minton (from whom the establishment took its name), and over the next decade, Minton's Playhouse became the scene of a revolutionary shift in jazz performance. Minton's Playhouse is regarded as a pivotal location in the history of jazz in New York City. Bring your friends and family to our Harlem location for dinner and the best live music New York City has to offer. Take a journey through the history of jazz. We have two sets scheduled: 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Each set is approximately 70 minutes in length. It was in this relatively small Harlem nightclub that these musicians, in the words of the immortal Ralph Ellison, "formulated... the chordal progressions and the hide-and-seek melodic methods of modern jazz." It was there that they "formulated... the chordal progressions and the hide-and-seek melodic methods of modern jazz." In other words, Minton's was not only the birthplace of Bebop, but it was also the incubator for everything that has come to be known as modern jazz. While Minton's is best known for its pivotal role in the Bebop revolution of the 1940s, the club maintained a vital existence through the early 1960s as a gathering place for musicians looking to jam, and it continued to operate until 1974, when a fire forced the closure of the Cecil Hotel, where Minton's was located. Nonetheless, Minton's Playhouse has been listed on both the National and the New York State Registers of Historic Places, in recognition of its significance in American history and culture.